Zela and James made their way through the war camp, herbs pulled low over their faces to avoid being recognized. Zela gazed all around her, eyes front frantically searching for any semblance of the familiar. In the time she had been locked away in the tower, the world had moved on without her, and it was a world she wasn't sure she had a place in anymore. She was still coming to terms with the fact that her entire family had lived and died without her, that everyone she had ever known was gone and there was nothing she could do to see them again, to make amends or tell them that she loved them.
James kept a hand on his sword as he and Zoe weaved through the crowds of soldiers and civilians who had come to support the rebel army. If they could just find a way to reach his father, James knew he could keep them safe. He felt a duty of care toward Zela. She was alone, and he was the only friendly face she had left. No one seemed to notice Zela, though a few seemed interested in him. James kept moving forward, afraid that if the rebels knew who he was things would turn out very badly for him and his new friend. He didn't know what the rebels wanted or why they hated his father, but he wasn't keen on sticking around to find out why.
"David? David! What are you doing here?"
James stiffened as a someone grabbed his shoulder. It was a young woman, with deep brown eyes and olive skin, her hair hidden under a blood red cloak.
"I though you and Snow were-" The stranger examined him closely, confused. "Wait, you're not David."
"No, I'm not." James replied curtly. He put his hand on Zela's waist, intending to continue on their way to his father's castle, but the stranger moved closer.
"You look just like him, but younger." Her eyes widened in comprehension. "You're James?"
His surprise gave him away, but fear quickly took over. "Run!" he commanded Zela.
She let go of his hand and sprinted in one direction; he went the other. Despite his best efforts to dodge the people and animals that blocked his path, two large, leather-clad hand grabbed him. In his struggle to break free, James lost his footing and fell to the ground.
The red-cloaked woman came running up behind him, flanked by armed guards. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."
His captor helped him to his feet, but James winced as his left ankle hit the ground. He'd sprained it.
"Don't worry, we can get you to healer's tent and he'll fix you up." The woman apologized.
James's confusion only grew. He knew this was a camp of rebels and traitors who hated his father, so why would a woman who clearly had a great deal of authority treat him like an honored guest. He nodded stiffly, not trusting himself to say anything. As the guard helped him hobble to the tent, the woman explained, "My name is Rose Red, but everyone just calls me Red. My sister, Snow White, is married to your brother."
"I don't have a brother, or any siblings." James now felt certain this woman had confused him with someone else. It was a shame he had frightened Zela and hurt his ankle over nothing. He hoped she was okay, wherever she was.
Red gave him a pitying look, "King George never told you, did he?"
At once James's world seemed to tilt on its axis. He found it difficult to keep steady. So she did know who he really was. And apparently she knew more about him that he knew of himself. A brother... impossible. Father wouldn't have sent one of his own children away, and even if he had, James and his father shared everything. There had to some mistake, some misunderstanding. Whether true or not, he still had no answer for Red's strange behavior.
"I suppose David, your brother, should be the one telling you all this," Red smiled sadly, "but he's leading the other half of the army with Snow, his wife."
James felt dizzy. This massive gathering of people and supplies was only half the army that had risen up against his father? He had to get back home, he had to warn his father.
As they reached the tent and the guard placed him on a cot, Red summoned a witch to perform a typical examination, to make sure he wasn't a spy or under some kind of spell to change his appearance. Once she was satisfied that he wasn't an imposer, Red sat beside him and continued, "You were adopted. Your blood parents were two farmers named Robert and Ruth; Robert passed away years ago, I'm sorry to say, but Ruth still lives. You and David were twins."
"You said I looked younger than him," James said more to himself than to Red. He knew the reason for it, but he didn't feel like telling her just yet. Despite her warm manners, he didn't trust her. She was part of a group that wanted his father dethroned and dead, and who's to say she wasn't making all this up?
"Years younger, but I can't figure out why," Red admitted. "Anyway, when you and David were babies, you both got really sick and your blood parents couldn't afford any medicine. They made a deal with the Dark One to ensure you'd both live, but they would have to give one of you up."
"Why me?" James interjected, surprisingly angry now. He didn't believe her, not entirely, but the thought of being given away stung.
"I don't know," Red admitted, "You'd have to ask Ruth. She and Robert never talked about it with David either. He grew up think he was only child, just like you. When you went missing, King George had David brought to court to pretend to be you until you were found." She gazed around the tent. "As I'm sure you can guess, that didn't go as planned."
James sat up and glared at her, "You're telling me that my long lost brother is waging a war against my adopted father?"
"David can explain it better than I can," Red offered weakly, still with that gentle, apologetic look in her eyes. It disgusted him. It meant she cared enough about him to worry about his feelings. She wouldn't care if she wasn't telling the truth. "I know it's a lot to take in and-"
"Get out," James snarled. He head spun, and his eyes tightened with the threat of tears. He wasn't going to cry in front of this woman, he couldn't. "I don't want to see you anymore, just get out."
"Okay," Red stood up. "I'll look for your friend and make sure she's alright."
With that, she left James to his turmoil.
Two cars parked near Storybrooke Police Department under the light of a fall moon. Mr. and Mrs. Lewis hopped out of the first car not bothering to watch where they were going, and Mrs. Lewis was nearly hit by the other car, belonging to the town's mayor, Regina Mills. When Regina got the call about her son being found in the woods that night, she didn't believe it at first. She went to Henry's bedroom to check up on him, but when she turned on the, she only found his empty bed and open window. Anger coursed through her. How could he do this to her? To think things had been going so well between them.
Though the Lewises had arrived at the police station first, Regina was the first in the door, her quick angry but steps echoing through the empty halls. She found Henry and his four miscreant friends huddled together near the jail cell covered in old blankets and drinking hot chocolate. Flora Xue remained in her cell, quietly speaking to her brother. She gave Regina an apprehensive look when they made eye contact. Miss Swan sat at her desk filing a report, and Graham was nowhere to be found. She stood up when she saw Regina.
Miss Swan remained a huge thorn in Regina's side. Their feud had reached an impasse; due to the memory spell Regina put on her all those years ago, Miss Swan couldn't believe magic existed, but something in her refused to let her leave Storybrooke, and the town continued to unraveled the longer she stayed. To make matters worse, she suspected that David Nolan had somehow regained his regained his memories, though she couldn't be sure. Then there was the matter of the elusive Killian Jones, who Regina couldn't find any dirt on no matter how hard she tried.
"What happened?" Regina demanded.
Miss Swan frowned, "You tell me. Aren't you Henry's mother? How is it the you keep letting him sneak away from you?"
"I don't have time for your attitude, Miss Swan," Regina rebuked. "It's late and I need to get my son home."
Mrs. Lewis interrupted them, "Paige? Dear god, what were you thinking?" The Lewises hugged their daughter tightly, to Regina's annoyance. The little beast should have fallen somewhere and broken her neck. Maybe that would teach Henry to stop disobeying her.
"Who was responsible for this little excursion?" Regina demanded.
Henry looked her square in the face, unremorseful, "It was my idea. You were going to put Flora in jail for something she didn't even do, so I had to find a way to stop you."
She should have killed Priscilla Jefferson herself. Asking Gold for favors always backfired on her, but for some reason she just couldn't seem to learn. The trickster had gotten rid of Miss Jefferson, as she had asked, but he had merely kidnapped her. And only a few months later, she was back.
Regina glared at Miss Swan, "Have you been telling him lies about me? Have you been beating him the notion that this woman-" she pointed angrily at Flora "-was somehow innocent?"
"Stop blaming Emma for everything!" Henry screamed, "You're the one who keeps causing problems, not her!"
"Get the car! I don't want to hear another word from you for the rest of the night."
"No." Henry stood firmly.
Mr. and Mrs. Lewis, still silent, held Paige back as if they expected a physical confrontation to ensue. The Xue siblings sat by in wide-eyed nervousness. Emma looked from Henry to Regina to Henry again. The tension broke when the door swung open, and Graham entered with some large object stuffed in a black evidence bag.
"Ah, I see everyone's here," he noted airily.
"What is that?" Regina eyed the evidence bag warily.
"That's for me to worry about," Graham replied coolly. "Emma, I'll leave this mess up to you."
Regina felt a sliver of ice run down her back as Graham turned away from her, to place the contents of that mysterious bag in the evidence room.
Regina found her son sitting at the table staring intently on a scroll. She sat down a cup of wine in front of him and took a sip from the other. "Is it your cousin Edward again? He is such a nuisance."
Alexander tore his eyes from the scroll, glaring at her. "No. It's a letter from my foster mother."
"The woman who raised you?" Regina's tone soured. She disliked any mention of Alexander's foster family, the people Cora had given him too after she had ripped him away from her own daughter. She preferred to imagine that she was the only mother Alexander ever had or ever would have, and that the barren farmer's wife meant no more to him than any nanny or wet nurse.
"Yes, she was just recounting the story of how I came to my other family." Alexander's jaw clenched and for a moment, Regina thought she could see tears forming in his eyes. "She told me of the old woman who had brought me to her, my blood grandmother, who was ashamed of me because I was born out of wedlock."
Regina set the glass of wine on the table, afraid that she would drop it. No, she thought, he couldn't have found out.
Alexander continued, "Her name was Lady Cora. That's your mother's name, isn't it? I've read the genealogy records."
"Let me explain –"
"You lied to me!" Alexander rose to his feet. "I am not the ting's son, am I? In the letter, she said my blood father was beneath my blood mother, that he was a mere servant."
"He was a good man! He was the love of my life!" Regina couldn't stop herself. The words came out without her will. She could not stand the thought of Daniel's son, his only son, thinking badly of him. but it was too late now, the lie exposed, and the truth more painful then either of them had anticipated.
The tears fell from Alexander's eyes, but he wiped them away quickly. "So it's true? You admit it. Why?"
"It wasn't my choice," Regina cried. "My mother took you away from me before I had even seen you. But I loved you, I love you more than words could say."
"I understand that. I mean, why didn't you tell me I was your son by blood? Why did you lie and say I was the king's bastard? Do you even realize what you've done, the birthright you stolen from Edward?"
"Don't tell me you'd like to see that a man on the throne," Regina snapped.
"It's not about what I would like, it's about the truth, about what's right!"
Regina almost shook her head. Living among the common folk had turned her son into a brainless do-gooder like that insipid Queen Eva. How she would have raised him to be clever and cunning! If only she had been given the chance.
"None of that matters now," Regina said.
Alexander's face dark end with anger, "What is wrong with you?
Regina sighed patiently and placed her hands on his chest. "You know I've only wanted what was best for you, don't you? "
He shook his head. "Have you ever told me one true thing, ever?"
"Of course!" Regina's lips trembled with anger. "I have loved you since I learned that you existed. Your father was the love of my life, and we would have gotten married and raised you and been happy if it weren't for my mother. She took you from me and forced me to marry the king. I've been miserable ever since, but we can put all that behind us. We can be the family that we should have been all along."
A strange emotion flickered on Alexander's face. "Did you really hate the king that much?"
"Yes. He was a file, evil man who treated me like garbage! He made my life a hell. But he's gone now, he's gone and he can never hurt us."
Alexander's eyes widened in comprehension. "You killed him," he accused.
Regina's heart beat faster in her rib cage. Surely, her own son couldn't take that bastard's side, not her dear Daniel's son. "You would have killed him if you knew half the things he did to me!"
"That doesn't justify murder - regicide!"
Tears flowed freely from Regina's eyes. Never in her worst nightmares had she imagined that her son, one of the few people in the world she ever loved, would say such a thing. To suggest that she should have endured her husband's abuse because it was the "right thing" to do. She had suffered betrayals before, but never like this.
"Did you kill your daughters too? Did you plan all this out just so you could rule through me?" Alexander demanded.
"No," Regina's voice shook. It wasn't technically a lie… She hadn't meant for Snow to take the blame for Leopold's death, but the circumstances forced her hand. And Red, well, she certainly wasn't dead, but she'd be much happier as a werewolf than as a queen.
"What happened? Why did you lie?" Alexander's voice dropped to broken whisper.
"I didn't kill anyone for you," Regina answered stiffly. "Leopold... Leopold was evil. Not me. All I did was defend myself. The girls…things got out of control."
Alexander scoffed, "I could have had sisters."
"It's not my fault!" Regina insisted. "The people of this kingdom don't like me. They knew Leopold and I didn't get along, and they took his side! I didn't know what I was facing, and I…I wanted to meet you. I missed you so much, and I was finally free to take you back. My mother was gone, so was my husband. I finally had an excuse to come find you."
"No, you invented an excuse," Alexander corrected. "You made up some story about me being the king's son and heir to the throne. You never even planned to tell me you were my blood mother, did you?"
"I wanted to-"
"But you weren't going to! Because I was more valuable to you as a bastard king than as your son!" Alexander shouted.
Regina felt her world unraveling. All her work had gone nowhere, all her pain had been for nothing, and she didn't know what to say to make this better. "Alexander, listen to me. I love you more than anyone in the world. You can choose not to believe me, but that doesn't make it any less true. I made you king because that's what mothers do, they give their children the best. I'm sorry you have to lie, but we're already in too deep to turn back now."
"You're not even my real mother," Alexander interrupted, "You're just the woman who gave birth to me. Why should I keep your secrets?"
Regina felt as though someone had sent her lungs on fire. She collapsed at her son's feet, unable to keep her balance. "I'll die," Regina choked, tears flowing freely. "Regicide is a capital crime. They'll kill me, the Duke of Prusemond will kill me. You know he already hates me. If you give him any excuse, he'll have me swinging from a noose by morning. You can't let him kill me," Regina begged.
Alexander helped Regina to her feet, and whispered a promise in her ear. Heartbroken and humiliated, the queen limped back to her bedchamber.
